3 Lessons I've Learned From a Girl Named Cady
I am 59 years young … teetering on the brink of celebrating 6 decades of living! You would think that I would know everything there is to know by now, wouldn’t you?!
You would think that I would know why winter is so long and why children grow up and leave home and why bad things happen to good people. But I don’t know the “why” of any of that. I simply don’t know why. I just know that it happens.
I have learned 3 new lessons this week the hard way. I now have in my heart the understanding of 3 life truths that have been completely excruciating to learn. I have learned them from a young woman by the name of Cady Morgan Lewis who married the man of her dreams only 9 months ago.
When Cady and Jordan were married on June 29, 2013, Cady knew exactly what she was getting into. Jordan had just been told that the cancer he had fought 2 years earlier had come back with a vengeance. Cady heard everything that the doctors had to say and married Jordan anyway.
She married him because of faith.
She married him because of hope.
She married him because of love.
"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” – I Corinthians 13:13
Jordan walked into heaven on March 20, 2014 … just 9 days short of their 9 month wedding anniversary. Jordan’s healing is complete and he now lives and breathes in the presence of Jesus! Imagine that!!
As I have watched this couple valiantly stand in faith, hope and love over the past 9 months, this is what I have learned from 2 young people, who although decades younger than I am, possess a wisdom and strength far deeper than anything I have ever tapped into.
- – I have learned what true love looks like. I have learned that true love is not found in Valentine gifts, honeymoons and diamond rings. True love is found in the ICU, in choosing to sing rather than cry and in listening to what the doctors have to say but in believing for life anyway. Cady’s commitment to Jordan’s life and to his healing are what true love looks like. Cady loved her man deeply, passionately and thoroughly. She had the resolve and strength to love when others would have given up. I want to love like Cady Lewis has loved. True love will always look exactly like Jordan and Cady Lewis to me.
"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18
2. – I have learned how to stand in faith. Cady and Jordan possessed a gargantuan faith that was never threatened by worst case scenarios, the grim diagnosis of medical experts or the severe symptoms that Jordan endured. They continued to believe for a miracle healing until Jordan took his last breath this side of heaven and then Cady believed some more. Cady’s belief in Jordan’s total healing never wavered. Jordan’s belief that he would “live and not die and declare the works of the Lord” never wavered. Jordan had more faith in his little finger than most of us stir up over a lifetime. Whenever I need to stand in faith for a miracle again, I will remember the faith of Cady and Jordan Lewis.
3 – I have learned how to continue to trust in God’s goodness when my prayers don’t receive the answer I so desperately desired. My faith is absolutely not shaken in a God Who is always good even though Jordan now dances in the presence of Jesus and not on earth with his young and beautiful wife. I love God more today than I did on June 29, 2013 and on March 20, 2014. I love Him even when His answer does not line up with my deepest desires. You see, I don’t believe that God said “No” to our fervent prayers for Jordan’s healing … I believe that God said, “I will heal him forever and ever!”
Whenever I read the story of Lazarus, I always wonder, “Jesus, why did You cry?”
Why did you cry when you were confronted with the earthly death of your dearest friend? Was it because you missed him? Was it because the people were saying, “Why weren’t you here?”
There is a stirring in my heart today that the reason that Jesus cried was because he knew how wonderful heaven was … and he was about to bring Lazarus back from that place where 23 year old young men are forever healed and whole and laughing and dancing. Jesus cried because He was about to bring Lazarus back to the war zone of planet earth when heaven is actually the ultimate goal of every life regardless of age. I believe that Jesus cried because we, his children on earth, focus on the temporary while He focuses on eternity.
So now what do we do? We pray for this spectacular bride and for all of the todays and tomorrows yet to come for her this side of eternity. We pray that Jesus, the God of all comfort, would comfort her broken heart. We pray that His dear presence would envelope Cady’s heart and give her the strength to carry on. And, we rejoice in the short life of Jordan Alexander Lewis. We rejoice that he lived … that he loved … that he hoped … and that he was a man of extraordinary faith.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those whoa re in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God, for just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” – II Corinthians 1:3-5
